Research house predicts 'dramatic' evolution in smart homes over next decade

A typical family home in a mature, affluent market could contain several hundred smart objects by 2022, according to a prediction from Gartner.

The falling cost of adding sensors and communication technologies to consumer products would contribute to this, Gartner said. Indeed, the research house predicted that the smart home will be an area of "dramatic" evolution over the next decade, and will offer a number of digital business opportunities to organisations that can adapt their products and services to exploit it.

"We expect that a very wide range of domestic equipment will become 'smart' in the sense of gaining some level of sensing and intelligence combined with the ability to communicate, usually wirelessly," said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"More sophisticated devices will include both sensing and remote control functions. Price will seldom be an inhibitor because the cost of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling a consumer 'thing' will approach $1 in the long term."

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The number of smart objects in the average home will grow slowly for at least a decade, because many large domestic appliances are replaced infrequently, Gartner said. However, although a mature smart home won't exist until between 2020 and 2025, smart domestic products are already being manufactured at the moment.

Gartner said that these product categories are manifold, ranging from media and entertainment, such as consoles and TVs, to appliances, such as cookers and washing machines.

Wireless technology will be a key foundation of the smart home and most of the device categories will be connected wirelessly although no single technology will dominate, Gartner said. The research house predicted that Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular and various proprietary and mesh networking wireless technologies will all find a place in the smart home. It's therefore likely that a range of gateways and adapters will be necessary to bridge between the many different standards and protocols.